October, 2026 - Enter Safe Mode

Why I Went Back to a Standalone Garmin GPS (kinda)

Posted on October 19, 2026October 19, 2026 by Drew G. Rosen

To drive without your phone as the map, put a standalone GPS on the windshield. A used Garmin DriveSmart 51 LMT-S runs about $20 to $100. It keeps its maps on the device and finds you by satellite, so it routes fine with zero bars. Turn off Smart Notifications on day one and a text can never cover the map again.

I was crawling up the Cross Island last month, stop-and-go.

The voice told me to merge right in a quarter mile. And right then the screen changed on me. A fat calendar banner slid down about a Zoom call. A text stacked up behind it. My map was just gone, buried under two untimely rectangles.

So there I am, swiping at glass with my thumb while steering two tons of metal at forty miles an hour.

So I made a healthy regression. I bought a GPS.

An actual one, the kind that sits on a suction cup arm and looks like it fell out of a 2011 rental car. Mine is a Garmin DriveSmart 51 LMT-S. It doesn’t have my email. It’s a piece of single-purpose plastic that wants nothing from me except to get me to where I want to go.

Last week I moved the car’s music off my phone. This is the natural next step.

Music in the Car Without Your Phone: Pick the Port, Then the Player

Posted on October 16, 2026October 16, 2026 by Drew G. Rosen

To play music in the car without your phone, match a dumb music source to whatever’s in your dash. A USB port takes a stick of MP3s. An AUX jack takes any MP3 player. A CD slot takes burned discs. Bluetooth-only cars pair with a Bluetooth MP3 player. No ports at all? Use an FM transmitter or a cassette adapter.

In April 1995 I got my first new car. A black Honda Civic coupe with an aftermarket 10-disc CD changer bolted into the trunk.

Want a different album? Pull over. Pop the trunk. Yank out the magazine. Swap the discs.

The first song I ever played in that car was “Only One” by the Goo Goo Dolls. Track 7 on A Boy Named Goo. (Long story.)

Thirty-plus years later, changing the music takes zero effort. Maybe that’s the problem.

You know the move. You get in the car and connect the phone “for music.”

By the first red light you’ve seen a text from the group chat, a Yankees trade rumor and a calendar alert for a meeting you couldn’t care less about.

If that sounds familiar, consider freeing yourself from distraction by playing your music from a source other than your phone.

Earlier this year I ghosted Spotify for 60 days and lived off a CD tower I’d almost thrown in the trash. It was a pain in the ass. It also taught me that a little friction goes a long way.

Screen-Free Camera for Kids: A Camera That Can’t Scroll

Posted on October 9, 2026October 9, 2026 by Drew G. Rosen

Short answer: A good screen-free camera for kids is a cheap, sturdy camera that only takes pictures. No apps. No feed. For ages 3 to 6, a rubber-cased kids’ camera with a small review screen is fine. From about age 7, the Camp Snap 2 ($69.99) has no screen at all. Teens can move up to film.

You know the move. The kid wants to take pictures, so you hand over your phone.

It comes back ten minutes later, warm. There are 400 burst shots of a seagull’s left foot. And somehow YouTube Kids is open.

(Nobody knows how. Nobody ever knows how.)

The kid wanted a camera. You handed over a mini super-computer with a lens on it.

If that sounds familiar, “it’s just for pictures” is probably your excuse too.

A camera that can’t scroll fixes the logistics. It takes the picture. Requires focus (get it?!). Then it goes back in the bag.

Phone Out of the Bedroom: The Analog Sleep Stack

Posted on October 5, 2026October 5, 2026 by Drew G. Rosen

I used to tell myself the phone was on the nightstand for the alarm. That was true for about four seconds a night. Then I’d check the weather and answer one text in a group chat that could have waited until the Islanders lost again tomorrow.

Somehow, I’d end up reading about a guy who reorganized his garage. I’d look up and it was 12:40am, and my brain was running laps.

If that sounds familiar, the “alarm” is probably your excuse too.